Wolverine: Origins #35Review

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Wolverine and Daken continue to battle for ownership of the Muramasa blade.

By Jesse Schedeen

As Daniel Way has revealed before, Wolverine: Origins was conceived as a roughly 60-issue saga. There are times when I wonder if many of the series' storytelling problems couldn't be solved merely by condensing the road map and trimming some of the fat. This current arc could certainly benefit from a little trimming. Three issues in, we're still seeing Wolverine, Daken and the X-Men brawl in Central Park for ownership of the Muramasa Blade. As with too many arcs before it, this story just doesn't offer enough to captivate.

If you were annoyed at how quickly the X-Men were dispatched by Daken last time, this issue may please a little bit more in the sense that Way allows Cyclops' team to regain their dignity a bit. He quickly falls into a formula wherein Daken stands over a character, ready to deliver the killing blow, only to be blitzed by a revived X-Man. The fight begins anew. Rinse and repeat. This formula carries the story for much of the issue until the battle mercifully and Way moves onto the real crux of the conflict. The final pages where Daken's plans begin to bear fruit are more interesting, partially thanks to the addition of a new villain. On the other hand, this segment feels largely divorced from the rest of the book. I would greatly have preferred it if Way wrapped up the fight last month and allowed this segment to take center stage this month.

At least Doug Braithwaite makes all the rampant fighting bearable. Way allows Braithwaite the chance to draw some nifty sequences involving the other X-Men. Particular noteworthy in terms of visuals were Colossus and Armor. Unfortunately, once the story diverges from the battle the visual quality dips somewhat. Also, I'm growing increasingly annoyed with the coloring in this series, as it tends to bathe everything in an unnatural glow.

In short, this is an arc that has proven woefully short on both story content and logic. Why did Cyclops abandon all common sense and strategy when choosing to confront Daken? Why didn't he dispatch X-Force, a team who seems tailor-made to confront threats like this? That could have made for an interesting story, with Wolverine forced to battle the same squad he was intended to lead. Instead, Way has cooked up a story that seems predominantly concerned with setting the stage for Dark Wolverine and much less so with furthering the story of its title character. I'm all for kicking Daken out of this book and letting Wolverine get back to basics.